Basquiat The Musical

Roughly 22 percent of Damien Hirst’s spot paintings were on display during Gagosian’s firehouse sale 2011 retrospective of that body of work. Figuring out how many of those works were for sale, might have given the Times’ Graham Bowley a better news hook than whatever he’s working with here. This is a story about catalogue of Hirst’s spot paintings that was announced months ago, and won’t be released until September. I’m not convinced that a book that identifies which paintings were done by Hirst and which were done by an assistant is going to affect his market all that much (though having an accurate count of them all will likely help). [NYTimes]

Bloomberg is reporting a bullish Basel preview. The bulk of the piece is dedicating to recounting what art sold and for how much, but there’s also a tidbit from Art Advisor Todd Levin, about how art is a good tax shelter. I keep seeing this explanation for the current art boom. Felix Salmon, how true is this claim? [Bloomberg]

Life makeover! Basquiat The Musical is not only happening, but it is going full Broadway. The project is to be directed by Paul Stancato, of The Lion King, The Wedding Singer, and Hairspray. At least after Basquiat, The Movie, the bar on that story is pretty low. [HuffPo]

“Are you an American, and does your patriot’s sense of charity extend to providing free labor to the misunderstood gentle giant of our federal government, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)?” If so, Hyperallergic’s Mostafa Heddaya has found an opportunity for arts professionals to fill special and undisclosed needs, unpaid, of course. Executive-level applicants only. [Hyperallergic]

This map of America’s museums makes it look like every town in America has at least one, which may be a slight exaggeration with a few home addresses (Brooklyn, for example). [Atlantic Cities, via Artinfo]

Notorious union busting firm Jackson Lewis just got an Alfred P. Sloan Award for its “exemplary workplace practices.” from the non-profit When Work Works. [Jackson Lewis]

This is annoying. Apparently ten percent of the City Bike docks don’t work. WNYC laments that it’s had to run its own studies on the failure of these docks because the city has refused to answer questions about the number of down stations, customer complaints, call wait times, etc. They seem pissed. [WNYC]